Ring Ring’s first poem is a choose-your-own-adventure set in the Saint Paul Central Library in downtown Saint Paul, by Ring Ring Poetry’s creator, Cole Sarar. “The Beast” will be the featured poem from May 2nd to May 5th. The poem runs between 2 and 3 1/2 minutes. Stand in front of the main entrance on West 4th Street, close to the door, and phone (612) 223-POEM. (You may listen to the poem from outside the library, inside the library, from Portugal, or anywhere else you have phone access!)

If you end up listening to the poem inside the library, be sure to be aware and respectful of other patrons and the librarians. Photography of the building is allowed, but photography of other people is not. The Central Library was finished October 17, 1917. The exterior features Tennessee Marble, the interior features wood and stone from Minnesota locations.

“While most of St. Paul’s citizens applauded the library’s move to larger quarters, the chair of the library board did not. With eerie prescience, former Minnesota governer Alexander Ramsey pointed out to his fellow library board members that the move “would be from a fire-proof building to constan” A wooden awning, supported by poles handy for typing up a horse or team, shaded the sidewalk around the Market House. First-floor tenants included Clark’s Restaurant, the Sharood Shoe Store, Boe’s Millinery, Toumley’s Cigar Store, the Central Clothing Store, and fatefully, the Bosalis and Papas Confectionary.

“Sam Craidone was stirring up a batch of candy in the basement kitchen of the confectionary store around nine o’clock on the night of April 27, 1915, when he smelled smoke. Racing up the wooden stairs, he shouted “Fire!” A score of patrons in the confectionary rushed into the street. Employees grabbed the cash register and carried out tables and chairs. By the time the fire department arrived, the landmark Market House, one of the oldest buildings in St. Paul, was engulfed in flames. One witness said it “burned like kindling.”

– from A Noble Task by Biloine W. Young.

Cole Sarar is a writer, the founder of the Minnesota Microphone blog and calendar, and the founder of the Punch Out Poetry Slam. She was a contestant in Literary Death Match Twin Cities, where she “captivated with a series of work that left the audience’s collective jaw hanging.” Her poem “Eating Our Words” was published in Write Bloody’s “Aim for the Head”. She was a winner of a 2010 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant in Poetry and a 2012 VERVE grant through Intermedia Arts. She has collaborated in public art projects like the Art Shanty Projects and Journey to the End of the Night. Cole’s Personal Website

What IS Ring Ring Poetry?

Ring Ring Poetry is a poetry installation featuring Minnesotan poets, "broadcasting" poems written for specific locations in the state.

Audiences are encouraged to go to those locations, call the Ring Ring Poetry phone number, and experience poems there within the poem's location.

Ring Ring Poetry was created and is executed by Cole Sarar. The 2014 Ring Ring Poetry Season will debut poems weekly June-August throughout Minnesota, through a generous Emerging Writers Grant hosted by The Loft and funded by the Jerome Foundation. The 2013 Ring Ring Poetry Season was funded through a VERVE spoken word grant, hosted by Intermedia Arts. In 2013, Ring Ring Poetry debuted new poems in the Twin Cities from May 2- June 28.